A long long time ago I won some Goldie Bronze from Val Lewis
I'm just now giving it a try.
So many wonderful things to try, so little time!
I'm just now giving it a try.
So many wonderful things to try, so little time!
I didn't make anything brand new,
I used some of my favorite scratch foam textures that I've created to test it out.
I used some of my favorite scratch foam textures that I've created to test it out.
Below is a Lotus Root in Goldie Bronze on the Left and Copper on the Right.
Right away the most obvious difference is the size. I used the same mold I created for both.
Shrinkage for Goldie Bronze is about 5% and for CopprClay about 20%.
I'll definitely have to keep that in mind in the future because many of my pieces I create for earrings pairs will be too big using Goldie Bronze. I'll have to do some downsizing.
Although the larger size is good for pendants.
Below is one of my Elephants, Goldie Bronze above and CopprClay below.
My little tiny elephant is not so tiny any more.
Bronzie Gold Elephant is about 1.75" from nose to tail
Copper Elephant is 1.25" nose to tail.
I did get some nice color on the bronze, especially on the Lotus Root above.
There are some other more subtle differences between the 2, it's a powder you have to mix which isn't bad at all. The texture is different, when in clay form it's a bit grittier I guess and when it's dry it's much more rigid and actually files away easier.
I was also hoping for some cool color straight from the kiln, I've seen some other people get some wonderful greens and really wonderful rustic finishes but I did not. I had to tumble them for at least an hour and then I torched them to get a little warmth and color.
Thank you Lesley Watt for remind me about the firing schedule. It's a 2 step firing but both are very quick. One drawback is the first step you can only do a single layer, you can stack layers during the second stage so I think I'd do a few batches of the first firing and combine them all during the second phase.
Bottom line I like it, everything sintered and I got no blistering which is a problem I've been having with BronzClay so I quit using it quite some time ago.
If anybody out there has used Goldie Bronze I'd love to see it,
please leave a link in your comments so we can all go take a look!
Kristi
